Assessment of Free Gas in the Tibial Condyle Bone of the Human Knee by Diode Laser Spectroscopy With Possible Application to Arthrosis Diagnostics

The gas in scattering media absorption spectroscopy (GASMAS) technique was used to investigate the possible presence of free gas pores in human condyle bones, extracted from the tibia in knee revision surgical procedures in response to arthrosis development. Following earlier studies showing free gas presence in femoral head bones, decaying because of inadequate blood flow, we investigated condyle bone, where the arthrosis degeneration process, affecting the cartilage cup, is of different origin. Only a minor gas presence was observed in affected condyle samples, in accordance with our finding for non-arthrosis samples. Further, studies of fresh or initially frozen samples showed very similar signals, suggesting that the handling procedure has only a minor importance in these studies. In contrast to the situation for femoral heads, the monitoring of a gas presence would add only little in assessing the arthrosis status in the view of elective surgical procedures.